Sagrera station was opened on July 21st 1959 as the terminus of the first section of line II, from Sagrera to Vilapicina. It was built under the Avinguda Meridiana between Carrer Garcilaso and Carrer Felip II, next to the Metro Transversal’s (now Line 1) station with the same name.

The strong demographic growth in the districts in the north of Barcelona led to the approval in 1953 of the final project to build a new metro line, the ‘Transversal Alto’, between the existing Sagrera station and the Plaça d’Eivissa, in Horta. Until then, the neighbourhoods where the line would be built were served by many bus and tram lines.

Sagrera sation was built using the cut-and-cover method, near the surface. Initially it had two tracks and three platforms, a distribution known as “Barcelona solution” that had already been used in the Metro Transversal’s stations between Glòries and Fabra i Puig. This distribution allowed for a better distribution of passengers in the platforms. A link corridor to the Metro Transversal’s station was built too.

The official opening took place on July 21st 1959, and it was an event with special solemnity, as the line was the first new metro line put in service since the 1920s. The opening committee (formed, among others, by the railroads director, Pascual Lorenzo Ochando, and the mayor of Barcelona, José Maria de Porcioles), travelled from Catalunya station to Sagrera. After the blessing of the rolling stock and infrastructure by the bishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego Casaus, the committee took the first train of the new line to Vilapicina station, where the opening speeches took place.

The original rolling stock in the line were seven two-car trains of the 600 series. Interestingly, in 1961 an automatic train operation (ATO) system was installed in the trains. Despite being a very basic and unreliable system, it represents the first real example of an automatic metro system in the world. The system was abandoned in 1969, one year before the unification of line II and line V.